


Send My Regards To Hell

by KTheKryptid



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Consequences, Dark Magic, dark magic side effects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 04:37:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19760737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KTheKryptid/pseuds/KTheKryptid
Summary: “Claudia, let me tell you something important.” Her father picked up the lizard with his free hand, gripping it tightly so it couldn’t move. Claudia kept her eyes on the animal in her father’s hands, struggling to get out of his grasp. “We kill,” he flicked the knife across the lizards throat, causing Claudia to jump. “To survive.” He uttered the healing spell and she watched the skin on his palm stitch itself back together. “Once you learn that, Claudia, you’ll possess a power that could one day bring the world to its knees. Do you understand?”Listen guys, I just really wanted to explore Claudia learning magic and also the idea of magical side effects. That's that.





	Send My Regards To Hell

It started out with just her being curious. Curious about the books her father kept. Curious about the strange words he said. Curious about why animals around their home kept disappearing. Curious about how her father could make things disappear and reappear as if it were nothing. How he could burn things, how he could just do what he could. It was an innocent beginning, honestly. It really was. It was supposed to be good. It was supposed to balance the scales of Xadia. It was supposed to give the humans magic, like those evil Moonshadow Elves had. It wasn’t supposed to do this.

Claudia could still remember the first time she used magic. She was just a little girl playing hide-and-seek with Soren. It had been Soren’s turn to count after losing seven rounds of rock-paper-scissors. She could remember him complaining about it and saying it wasn’t fair. Her only reaction had been to stick her tongue out and make faces at him as he crossed his arms at her. When he began to count, she ran around the house aimlessly before realizing the perfect place to hide, somewhere her brother would never even think to look: her father’s study. Soren hated the study. No, it was more than hate. He was  _ afraid _ of that study. Where Claudia was curious, Soren was frightened.

She slowly crept the double doors open, slipping past, and tried to click the doors shut again as quietly as she could. She turned around and silently punched the air at her accomplishment. Now, she had to find where in the room she was going to hide. Claudia scrambled around. She wouldn’t fit in the small chest by the wall; it was already mostly filled with things. The closet in the corner was also out of the question; her father kept it under lock and key at all times. There were bookshelves everywhere else with her father’s desk across from the doors.

Her eyes wandered to the bookshelves, immediately forgetting that she was supposed to be hiding as her eyes moved from book to book. She walked closer to them, running her fingers down the spines of each of them, tracing the lettering of the titles. Her eyes wandered over to the desk which was covered in books, quills, and ink, not even registering when Soren yelled out he was coming to look for her. Claudia sat at the oak chair, grabbing the closest book to her. 

_ Spells for Dark Magic _ , she read the title to herself. Claudia opened the book to the first page, the introduction. 

_ For thousands of years, humans were thought to be the weakest creatures in Xadia due to their lack of magic. The amount of battles lost due to this weakness, the amount of lives lost, was unimaginable. It wasn’t long before Dark Magic was discovered: a type of magic that humans could use once a proper energy source was used. It was this Dark Magic that was used to win the war against the Moonshadow Elves and winning the war against the Dragon King. _

“Found you!” Soren yelled as he slammed the doors open.

Claudia dropped the book back onto her father’s desk and stood up, putting her hands on her hips. “No fair, Soren! You didn’t even say you finished counting!”

“Not my fault you didn’t bother hiding. Why were you at Dad’s desk anyways?”

“To read,” she replied, holding back from saying  _ duh _ .

Soren quirked his eyebrow. “Read?”

Claudia huffed and rolled her eyes playfully. “Yeah, dumb dumb. Ever heard of a book?”

Soren threw his head back and turned around. “Come on, Claudia. We were having fun. It’s your turn to count now.” He ran away and left Claudia in the room by herself. She turned back to her dad’s desk and the book she was reading. She went to sit back down when he called for her again. 

“Coming!”

*****

It was a few years later when Claudia would cast her first spell. Her father had left their house for work, and Soren was out being Soren.  _ Probably hitting himself with a stick pretending it’s a sword,  _ she thought to herself. She would never understand her brother’s obsession with those things. There was nothing appealing about them, at least not to her. No, ever since she learned that it was magic her father used, that’s the only thing she could ever think about.

It had been a while since she had last stepped foot in her father’s study. It had been a year ago, maybe a little longer. Claudia made her way into the room, and started reading through the different spell books. She was making her way onto her fourth or fifth book when the door slammed open, her father staring at her in the doorway.

“Claudia…” he started. Claudia shut the book, her eyes wide. She got up from the chair as her father took a step towards her. “You know this isn’t a place for kids. You can’t play in here. This is where I do my work.” 

Every sentence added more annoyance to his voice. Claudia couldn’t help but hang her head, causing her dad to sigh. He strode over to her quickly and placed his hands on her shoulders. 

“I just don’t want you to get hurt, Claudia.” She looked into his eyes. “Just promise that you won’t come here again.”

She nodded, and he accepted that as a promise.

_ Joke’s on him, _ Claudia thought, thinking back to that day.  _ He’s finally going to be gone all day.  _ How he’s never left the house  _ all day _ for a year, she’ll never understand. But now, now she had her chance. She tiptoed to her father’s study before stopping in the middle of the hall.  _ Why am I tiptoeing? _ she thought to herself, smacking her forehead.  _ I’m the only one in this house!  _ Claudia ran to her father’s study, not wanting to waste another second. She threw the doors open and stood in the entryway, taking it all in again.

Immediately, her feet started walking her to her father’s desk where the spell book from before had been,  _ Spells for Dark Magic. _ Claudia knew next to nothing about dark magic. All she knew was that her father could do amazing things with it, and she wanted to learn too. She had read through a bit of the book any time she was able to sneak in the room before her father forbid it. Though she had only read the introduction of the book and the history of dark magic, she still knew it held power. A power that she wanted to feel. A power that could rival even the strongest Moonshadow elf if used by a competent enough magic wielder.

She sat down at her father’s desk and grabbed the book again. She flipped to the last page of the introduction, to the first spell of the book. 

_ The Wind of the South _

_ This spell gives the user the power and strength of the South Wind. Useful in battles to blow opponents away or as defence. Do not use without proper training. _

A part of Claudia wanted to turn back. It said right there in the book not to try this without proper training. She had none whatsoever. What made her think she could do this?

“I  _ can _ do this,” she said to herself.

Claudia shifted in her chair, making herself more comfortable. She sat up straighter and put her hands out in front of her. She didn’t know why she did that, she just thought it would help the magic flow. Looking down at the book again, she repeated the strange words to herself until they were ingrained in her mind, just like the introduction of the book had told her.  _ A memorized spell is a strong spell _ , she recited to herself. Claudia took another breath, steadying her rapidly beating heart, and recited the enchantment out loud.

Nothing happened. She didn’t even feel anything.

Sitting up straight and concentrating even harder, Claudia repeated the enchantment again, more powerfully. Again, nothing. Not even a slight whisper of a wind. Growing frustrated, she slammed her hands down onto her father’s desk, accidentally squishing a fly under them. Picking up her hands, she inspected the dead insect, making a disgusted face as she noticed the specks of blood and dismembered legs.

“Try it again,” a voice from the room’s entrance said. Claudia’s head swung upward, eyes making contact with her father’s. She expected him to be upset, to be furious. But no. There was nothing in his eyes except pure curiosity. 

She quirked her head to the side. “What?”

Her father stepped further into the dark room. “I said, try it again.”

She stared at her father for a few seconds longer, double checking he truly wasn’t angry with her. When she could see that he was not and was only waiting for her to recite the spell again, she took another deep breath. She closed her eyes and thought of the spell in her head, thought of bending the wind to her whims. Claudia shivered slightly. Opening her eyes, she reached her hand out in front of her as if commanding a dog. She opened her mouth, and, in a voice she could hardly recognize, recited the spell once again.

This time, there was wind. It was more than a wind, in fact. It felt like a storm. The air whipped at her dress, but she didn’t care. She could feel the power of it surging through every inch of her body. She could feel the need to be free, the need to escape. She could feel the need to push past her father and whip around the house. She could feel the wildness of it all, the pure, unadulterated frenzy of it. 

And then, as if it had never been there at all, it left.

Claudia collapsed onto the floor, gasping for air.

“Good job, my dear girl,” her father said. She looked up and met his eyes once again. She could see his warm smile, the pride in his face. She couldn’t help her own lips from twitching upwards. “Good job.”

*****

“Get up, Claudia!” her father shouted at her for the third time that day. “We’re not done here! Get up!”

She groaned while laying on the ground, sore and worn out. She had been practicing with her father ever since she was able to call on the South wind all those months ago. It had felt like such a rush then, but she couldn’t replicate it. She didn’t know why. Well, no. That wasn’t the full truth. Claudia knew exactly why she couldn’t produce any more magic.

She refused to kill. 

Well, Claudia didn’t exactly understand the concept of  _ killing _ and  _ death _ , however, she did know it wasn’t something that nice people did. It wasn’t something she wanted to do. She knew she wanted to perform magic, but she didn’t want to use it if it meant killing.

And her father hated it.

Ever since that day four months ago where he asked her to call the South Wind, he’d been waking her up at the crack of dawn and taking her out to a clearing in the forest to train. Or so he called it. He’d demand her to kill an animal that he had someone trap for them to use so she could perform a spell. Any time she said no, he’d make her run up and down the steep hills surrounding her home. When the runs were over, she would have a short break before being made to read spell books until the sun had set and the moon was high in the sky. She was told to memorize book after book, threatened that her training would end if she couldn’t remember every single line. With every passing day, her father would make her training harder and harder. Every couple of weeks, her father would bring out a cage filled with small animals and ask her to perform a spell. When she said no, her father would make her sit in cold water during the night, reading more spell books. 

She understood why he was doing it: to make her stronger. To make sure her body and mind weren’t too weak to handle the power of the dark magic. To make sure the energy that came with the incantations wouldn’t drive her mad. To make sure she wouldn’t lose herself to the spells. 

But it’d never do her any good if she didn’t kill anything.

Her father grabbed her by her arms and lifted her onto her feet and pulled her over to one of the cages in the center of the clearing, the one filled with the lizards. “Come on, Claudia,” her father soothed her as he took out a knife. “This will be easy.” 

Instead of giving her the knife, she watched with wide eyes as her father slide the knife across the palm of his hand, crimson dripping from the point of it. It wasn’t a deep cut, but she could tell it hurt. She met her father’s eyes as he spoke, slowly pushing the knife into her hands. “I’m hurt, Claudia. You see that right?” Claudia nodded. “Good. Now, heal me. It’s simple. You know the spell. You’ve read it multiple times.” 

Claudia looked down at the knife in her hands, small blood droplets dripping from the edge, and then to the cage of lizards. She walked over to the cage slowly, almost as if in a trance. Claudia could hear her heartbeat in her eardrums pounding louder and louder with every single footstep, drowning out her father’s words of encouragement, drowning out the sounds of the forest, drowning out even the sound of her own thoughts. She looked down at the lizard before her and lifted the knife, preparing to strike.

She dropped the knife to the ground in a flash. “I can’t,” she whispered, a tear running down her face.

Viren stood there stoically, watching his daughter for a few seconds before looking away and sighing. He turned back towards her, leaned down, and picked up the knife, twirling it between his fingers.

“Claudia, let me tell you something important.” Her father picked up the lizard with his free hand, gripping it tightly so it couldn’t move. Claudia kept her eyes on the animal in her father’s hands, struggling to get out of his grasp. “We kill,” he flicked the knife across the lizards throat, causing Claudia to jump. “To survive.” He uttered the healing spell and she watched the skin on his palm stitch itself back together. “Once you learn that, Claudia, you’ll possess a power that could one day bring the world to its knees. Do you understand?”

She stood there, staring at him with wide eyes. Her father dropped the dead lizard on the ground. “I said, do you understand?” 

Claudia nodded, causing her father to relax.

“Good.” He kicked the carcass as he tucked the knife into his belt. “Tonight, you’ll read three more books and recite them to me at midnight. If you can’t remember every spell, your training ends.”

Claudia, of course, never forgot a spell. She grabbed the books her father procured from thin air and found a comfortable spot to sit in.  _ Not thin air, _ she thought to herself.  _ He used magic.  _ She cracked open the first book and started reading.

After a few hours of Claudia memorizing her books, she could hear the ring of swords in the distance. Her father must have started Soren’s sword lessons for the day, making it mid-afternoon. Claudia sighed and fell onto her back, closing her eyes. She spread her arms into the soft grass, feeling it’s softness beneath her fingers. This would be a long day. She sat back up, brushing off the dirt from her back, and began reading again. Not even a page in, Claudia was immediately shaken from her thoughts by a scream.

Claudia’s head shot up. “Soren.” She threw the book onto the ground and ran back home. She jumped over rocks and fallen trees, ducked beneath low hanging branches, trying to get to Soren as fast as she could. When her house finally came into view, she could see Soren on the ground with her father leaning over him. If possible, Claudia was able to push herself faster, anything to get to her brother.

She slid to a stop next to her father and looked over Soren. Her father’s hands were pressed against Soren’s side by his ribs, a thick, red liquid oozing between his fingers, giving a metallic tang to the air. Claudia dropped to her knees and put her hands over her fathers, not even realizing her hands were shaking.

“Claudia, you have to heal him.” Claudia looked up to her father, eyes wide. “I won’t be able to. I’ve spent all my energy training you and your brother today. You  _ have _ to save him.”

She started shaking her head no.

Her father scoffed. “So you’d rather your brother  _ die _ than heal him? Claudia, this is Soren we’re talking about. We can’t lose him. Do something.”

Tears started streaming down Claudia’s face. “I don’t know what to do.”

Soren winced and let out a pained sound. “Claudia, please. It hurts!” He gritted out through his teeth.

“Go get the flower petals grasshopper poop from my study, Claudia!” She didn’t move. Her father let go of Soren and placed his bloody hands on her shoulders. “Look at me! Your brother needs you.”

She took a deep breath and ran to her father’s study. She grabbed a handful of the healing flower’s petals and the jar of grasshopper poop and ran back outside to her father. She looked down at Soren and saw his face starting to get paler and paler. To her surprise, she didn’t feel fear anymore. No, she felt anger. Angry with herself that she was  _ naive _ enough to think she wouldn’t kill to save her brother. She’d do more than that. Claudia knew at that moment that if anything happened to Soren, she’d bring down the heavens. She crushed the petals and poop in her hand an recited the spell, her eyes going violet. 

“Sbmil eseht ot efil gnirb!” she yelled, her eyes then going black. Her hair whipped around her and a violet light emitted from her palms, enveloping Soren, entering his wound and stitching his skin closed. When it was finally healed, she fell down next to him, checking to make sure he was okay. 

“Soren?” she whispered, barely audible even to her father’s ear. “Soren, are you okay?”

Her brother groaned and rolled over, eyes opening up to both his father and sister, color slowly coming back to his face. He brought a hand to his side, touching where the wound used to be. Looking down at his hand and not seeing blood, Soren relaxed back onto the ground, sticking a thumbs up in the air for his father and sister to see. “I’m fine!”

Claudia sighed and visibly relaxed, smiling, before realizing what she did. She looked to her father whose eyes were on her. “I just..”

He nodded. “You healed him. Good job, Claudia. Go bring the books from the clearing and put them back in the study. Tonight, you rest. Tomorrow, we will try more spells.”

Claudia nodded and went to run back to the clearing. She stopped and hugged her brother first. “I’m glad you’re okay, Soren.” 

Her father and brother watched her run into the forest. When she was finally out of sight, Soren looked to his father. “How did I do, dad?”

He looked down at his son. “You did good, son. I hope I didn’t hurt you too much with that sword.”

Soren shook his head. The last thing he wanted was for his father to think him weak. “No, dad. Not at all.”

Viren nodded, helping his son to his feet. “You did a good thing for your sister. You pushed her to accept dark magic fully. You made me very proud.”

Soren beamed, happy to have done something right. “Can you help me with my swordwork now?”

Bending down to pick up the two practice swords, Viren said, “Of course. Come on. We have much to do.”

*****

Claudia gripped her head in her hands.  _ Another headache. _ She shook her head.  _ That makes four today. _ She took a few deep breaths, moving to stand up straight. She regained her balance and looked in the mirror. Straightening her hair out, she continued her deep breathing.  _ Just like Dad taught me _ , she thought to herself. The headaches had started a few weeks ago, confusing her father greatly. When she had complained about them, all he had said was a simple “You lack focus.” When they persisted, at least one a day following her magic lessons--some even in the middle of them--her father had insisted she had somehow been reciting the incantations incorrectly. He told her to go back into the library and memorize all the spell books again. 

She opened her notebook and took out her stylus, sitting down at her desk. Opening to a fresh page, she wrote,  _ Three hours past noon, fourth headache. Practiced homing spell. _ Claudia placed her stylus down and rested her chin on her hand, flicking back through the pages from the last few weeks. The words on the pages were barely registering to her when she suddenly caught on to something. She peered closer at her handwriting, making sure she was reading correctly.

Claudia stood up abruptly, causing her chair to fall over. Not even caring, she ran to the library, throwing the door open. Heads turned to stare at her. Most were annoyed, but there was one set of eyes that looked at her curiously.

“Claudia?” Callum said as she slid up to him. “What’s got you in such a hurry?”

Ever since her family had moved to the palace when her father was named the right hand to King Harrow, she had always thought of Callum as a good friend of hers. She tried to speak while catching her breath from running, causing the prince to laugh at her when her words came out in a garbled mess. 

“Okay, okay. Well,” Claudia straightened herself up, putting her hands on Callum’s shoulders, not even noticing the pink tinge on his cheeks. “You know how I’ve been getting headaches lately?  _ Well _ , I’ve been documenting what’s been causing them.” She started to flick through the pages of her notebook to the pages where she wrote down when she had headaches. “See, if I follow the trend of what causes the headaches like I’ve written down here, they  _ always _ come after I’ve done  _ some _ type of  _ magic _ .”

Callum opened his mouth to say something, but Claudia kept going. “So, if  _ magic _ is the reason I’m getting these headaches,” Claudia shuts her notebook. “Then  _ magic _ will be the way I get  _ rid of them! _ It makes perfect sense, right?”

With every word, Claudia’s face inched ever closer to Callum’s. She again didn’t even notice the pink tinge on his cheeks get brighter and brighter until they were almost as bright as a berry. Callum ever so politely pulled away from her grasp. Again, Claudia didn’t even notice. She just dropped her hands.

“Uh, Claudia,” Callum started. Claudia just nodded excitedly at him. “Wouldn’t magic being used to cure magical headaches just make them... _ worse _ ?”

She shook her head. “No, of course not! That’s the thing, Callum!” She walked past him to the spell books in the corner of the library. “There’s a magical cure for  _ everything _ !” she called to him as she walked away. 

A few hours later and Claudia was slamming her fifth book closed. She had found absolutely nothing about magical headaches or cures for them. Every healing spell she attempted resulted in simply magnifying the pain she was experiencing at that moment. She slammed her head down on the table, which, in hindsight, was probably not the  _ smartest _ thing she should have done. She brought her head back up, rubbing her forehead with both her hands.

“That looked like it had hurt.” 

Claudia looked up to see her father looming over her with a new spellbook in his hand. Claudia gasped loudly, immediately regretting it as it only aggravated her headache more. “Oh no.”

“Oh yes.” her father turned his back to her. “ _ You’re late to your magic lessons _ . You know what that means.”

Claudia nodded. Of course she knew. Extra hours of training. Rigorous training. She would be using spells that even her father hadn’t fully mastered. She stood up and followed her father out of the library, making sure to note the title of the book she was last looking for when her lessons were over.

“That’s enough, Claudia.” Her father called for her after a few hours of them going through her father’s spellbooks. “We’re done for today. You’re  _ obviously _ not going to master this spell at the moment.” He snapped the spellbook in his hand shut with a thud that caused his daughter to groan. He tried his best not to roll his eyes in front of her. 

She shook her head, taking a few deep breaths. “No!” She shouted a little louder than she intended. Taking a few more calming breaths, she repeated, “No. I can do this. Just watch.”

Viren looked at her doubtfully before sighing. “No, no. You’re feeling... _ unwell _ . It’s fine.” He waved his hand in dismissal as he turned his back on her. “We’ll continue later. I have other things to do now, Claudia. Go rest.”

When her father left the room, Claudia slammed her fists on the floorboards beneath her. “ _ No!”  _ She didn’t even recognize her own voice; it sounded more like a hiss than a person. Claudia reached her hands out in front of her, reciting the incantation her father drilled into her head so many times before. She may not have been able to see it, but she knew her eyes changed to a bright violet shade before turning into the deepest black pits. Her hair whipped around her, stinging her face and arms with their lashes. Not satisfied with the outcome, Claudia repeated the incantation with more power and bite behind her words.  _ She _ commanded the magic. It was hers to use, hers to do with as she pleased.  _ More, _ she thought to herself.  _ I want more! _ She could feel the magic within her radiate through every inch of her body. From the top of her head to the tips of her toes, her body practically vibrated with power.

But something was wrong. It started with a feeling like an itch that couldn’t be scratched, slowly turning into a burning feeling, before manifesting into the worst feeling she had ever experienced. Instead of flowing through her body and out into the world around her, the magic stayed within her, building on top of each other, bit by bit. It felt like Claudia was drowning, but even her gasping for air wouldn’t stop it. Her throat started to burn, and it was only then that Claudia realized she was screaming, a sound her own ears couldn’t pick up due to the sound of the power pumping through her.

Just as Claudia felt her grasp on the magic slipping, it disappeared altogether. She fell to her knees, panting desperately to get enough air. She brought a hand up to her face, wiping tears she had subconsciously shed out of her eyes. 

“I told you,” a stern voice came from the door. Claudia swung her head to see her father glaring down at her. “We were done.” He stepped towards her. “So tell me,  _ daughter _ . What. Was. That?”

Claudia frantically shook her head. “I don’t know. That  _ never _ happened before. It was so much... _ too  _ much.” She bent forward, arms around her stomach and eyes shut tightly to keep the world from spinning too much. 

Her father looked down at her and sighed. He bent down so his face was level with hers. “Claudia, you must not push yourself.”

She nodded this time. “I didn’t think it would be an issue. It’s  _ never _ been an issue before. I could  _ always _ do  _ any _ spell you gave me. This has  _ never _ happened before.” By the time she was finished, she was speaking between sobs.

Viren placed his hand comfortingly on her back. “Shhh...it’s okay. Why don’t we take a break from magic lessons for a bit? Let you relax? Maybe you’ve just been overworked.”

Claudia didn’t want to stop her magic lessons, but she knew this might be her best shot to get better. She looked up to her father, eyes wide with fear and pain. “Okay.”

*****

It had been months since she was last allowed to do magic. Claudia lay sprawled out in the grass of the clearing she used to train in with her father, her eyes shut tightly. She could still remember that day when she tried that spell for her dad, not even caring she could no longer recall the actual incantation. The power that coursed through her was terrifying, but it made her feel so alive.

Without it, however, she had felt as if her head would explode any second. Every day that passed without her being able to perform a spell, her headaches had increased in both duration and intensity. Now, it felt as if a dragon was beating its head against the walls of her mind, over and over and over again. Within a few weeks, the headaches weren’t the only things she had to worry about.

Claudia had woken up in the middle of the night, screaming in agony as she clutched her stomach, her bed covered in sweat. She tried to sit up, but the pain was too much for, causing her to writhe in pain. It felt as if hot lead was pouring through her veins, boiling her blood. She felt as if her blankets were strangling her, confining her. As soon as she kicked her sheets off, she felt a cold air rush through her, causing her to run to the bathroom and empty the contents of her stomach. She gripped her washbasin so tightly that her knuckles turned even paler than they were, shaking in her nightgown. 

As quickly as it had started, it stopped, leaving Claudia on her bed, gasping for air. She rolled onto her side at the sound of her door slamming open. Her vision was blurry from unshed tears she didn’t even realize had formed, but she could see the outline of her father standing in the doorway, a silhouette against the light of the hall. Claudia reached her hand out to him.

“Dad,” Claudia couldn’t even recognize her own voice. It sounded gravely and scratchy and weak. She grabbed her stomach as another wave of pain washed over her. “It hurts. Why does it hurt so much?” 

Viren walked over to her, his eyes filled with worry. He put a hand to her forehead before immediately pulling it away. “Claudia, darling, you’re burning up.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “Have you practiced magic today? You know you’re not supposed to.”

Claudia shook her head violently, or as violently as she could. Every inch of her body ached. “I haven’t used magic since you told me to stop.”

Viren watched his daughter shake in pain. If she had truly stopped like he had asked her too, then how was she feeling such strong side effects? In fact, Viren was still unable to work out how Claudia was able to channel so much power into her body all those months ago. It had taken him years to learn how to even access that much power let alone channel it into his body. How the  _ hell _ had his daughter figured it out? And how the  _ hell _ was she able to still have remnants of dark magic coursing through her after that? 

It had taken him a few weeks to figure it out, but after consulting several books in the castle’s library, Viren had come to the conclusion that somehow, someway, that’s what was causing Claudia’s illness. He also knew that the headaches and dizziness she felt when she did use magic were side effects that he himself went through when he was learning, just not as intensely. 

“Dad,” Claudia’s whimperings brought him out of his thoughts. “What’s wrong with me?” She was sobbing into her pillow, the pain refusing to subside.

Viren stroked her head. “It’s nothing a little bit of magic can’t fix.”

Claudia’s eyebrows furrowed. “But I can’t..you told me…”

“I know what I said, but I think it’s time you ended your break now.” He nodded, as if to reassure himself. “It’s time to do a spell. One simple spell.”

Claudia shook her head. “I can’t, dad. I can’t. It hurts too much. I can’t.”

Viren pushed his daughter from him and stared into her eyes, hard. “Is that what all my years of training has given me? A daughter who quits just because of a little  _ pain? _ You want this to stop?” Claudia nodded. “You want to feel better?” Another nod. “Then get up and do some magic like I raised you.”

He reached into his pocket and brought out a spider, pushing it into his daughter’s hand. “A spell, Claudia.”

She looked down at the spider and thought for a second, searching her mind for the perfect spell. “Niap siht tuo tsac ot htgnerts em evig, redips gniwolg ho!” 

Her eyes turned violet as a similar colored glow emitted from her body. Viren pulled away from her, watching in awe and...jealousy, he noted wryly. In a second, Claudia’s eyes turned black and the glow around her strengthened before extinguishing altogether. When the light went away, she sat up and looked down at herself.

“It...worked.” It sounded more like a question than a statement. She looked over to her dad, same wide eyes staring back at her.

“It worked.” Viren moved to leave before stopping. “Lessons begin tomorrow at 8. I suggest you get some sleep.”

*****

“Claudia, are you okay?” Soren looked back at her, worry clear in his eyes. It had been years since she found herself screaming in her room that night. When Claudia started her lessons again with her father, she was surprised to note that her headaches and dizziness were gone. It seemed her father was right. She had only needed a break from magic after being so overworked. The break, of course, only made her stronger. Claudia noticed that she was able to learn even more complex spells, causing her father to make her training longer and harder. With every passing day, it had become easier for Claudia to perform harder spells. She was able to return everything her father threw at her. Literally.

Recently, however, all that pain that Claudia had almost forgotten about had returned with a vengeance. She didn’t think healing Soren would have been  _ that _ big of an issue. She had done so many spells that required more than that, or at least, she thought she had. But no. Ever since she healed Soren’s paralysis, it was constant dizziness and pain and…

Claudia rushed to the bushes and emptied the contents of her stomach. She kept going until she was dry heaving and continued even more, barely registering Soren’s hand rubbing circles on her back and holding her hair from getting in her way.

“I think we should rest.” Soren began to unpack his bag, but Claudia just shook her head.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and then made a face, quickly waving her hand back and forth to get any of the sick off of it. “I’m fine, Soren. I promise.”

Her brother just stared at her and huffed. “Clauds, that was the  _ third time today _ . You are pushing yourself too hard.” 

“I said I’m fine! I just need to get home and rest, that’s all. Like last time.”

Soren shook his head this time. “Claudia. You know I’m grateful for you healing me. But this?” He gestured to the bush she had thrown up in. “This is too much. You’re pushing yourself too hard.”

Her head whipped to her brother. She could feel herself getting angry.  _ Why wouldn’t he just listen to her? She said she was fine. _ Soren’s eyes widened in fear and Claudia turned around, immediately summoning an orb of violet energy in her hand, ready for any uninvited guests that could possibly scare her brother that much. When she saw nothing, she extinguished the orb in her hand and turned back to her brother, raising an eyebrow.

“What got you all scared, Mr. ‘I’m a knight’?” 

Soren shook his head and looked away. “Nothing.” He picked his pack up and shouldered it, starting to walk forward. “We’ve got a long way to go before dark.”

Claudia watched her brother curiously as he started walking away from her. What could have possibly changed his mind so fast? She was shaken out of her thoughts when she realized her brother was getting further and further away from her to the point where she could barely see him anymore. 

“Soren wait up!” She ran after him, but not before picking some berries that looked too good to pass up.

Just as she was about to catch up to him, he disappeared again. She called out for him, but there was no answer. She turned around and the forest around started blurring in her vision. She rubbed her eyes, but still, the blurriness persisted. Claudia crouched down, holding her head in her arms. 

“Oh Claudia. You’ve really done it this time.” The words echoed around her, bouncing around as if she stood in an empty stone courtyard.

Claudia cracked an eye open to see nothing but darkness around her. She lifted her head up, looking around for the source of the words, but there was nothing, no one. She hugged herself with her arms, scanning through the darkness, trying to find something in the inky darkness around her. When she realized there was nothing around her, she stopped and sighed. 

She was confused by the darkness. Standing in it, not being able to see her own hand in front of her face. It was starting to get to her. She couldn’t stop the onslaught of questions that barraged her mind. Was she really standing upright? Was she in the forest? Had someone taken her eyesight? With every question, her breath became more and more ragged. Claudia shut her eyes--not because it did anything, more so from habit--and took a deep, calming, breath.  _ It’s okay. It’s just a dream. It’s okay. It’s just a dream _ . She kept repeating the mantra to herself over and over and over again, until her breathing evened out.

“A dream?” The mysterious voice was filled with acid. “Come on, Claudia. Even  _ you _ can’t be  _ that _ stupid.” Another laugh echoed around her, this time, sounding as if the source were directly in front of her. She squeezed her eyes tighter. 

“Open your eyes, Claudia.” She slapped her hands in front of her eyes, stopping the temptation. “I  _ said _ .” A hand gripped her own, ripping it from her face. “ _ Open your eyes. _ ” 

As much as she tried to keep her eyes closed, they opened of their own accord. She tried to look for the person speaking to her, but she had to blink a few times to adjust to the sudden bright light shining down upon them. She was quickly able to make out a silhouette standing in front of her, and, soon, small details, too. Claudia was able to tell the person was a girl, probably around her own age. She was able to make out her dark hair and her clothes. The girl was wearing a black tunic with gold piping and embellishments, similar to Claudia herself was wearing. 

No. 

_ Exactly _ like what Claudia herself was wearing. Her eyes started adjusting to the light, and she was able to finally see the person staring down at her.

“Hello,  _ Claudia. _ ” 

It was an exact replica of herself staring back at her, right down to the violet ends in her hair. The tunic, the boots, the violet nails.  _ Everything _ . It was like staring into a mirror, except for one part. The other Claudia’s eyes were fully black, like when she or her father was performing dark magic.

“Who…?” Claudia started, but the other Claudia cut her off with another laugh. 

“Who  _ am _ I? Are you really going to ask that?” Her voice was hollow, soulless like her eyes. The only thing lingering in the undertones was something Claudia didn’t want to think about. “I’m you. Well, the  _ better _ you at least.”

Claudia sat up on her knees and looked up at her other self doubtfully. “Better me?”

The other her nodded, clasping her hands behind her back and leaning into Claudia’s face, barely an inch away. “Better. Stronger.” She backed away and began to pace in the light. “Whatever word you want to use. Doesn’t really bother me.”

“Bitch?” Claudia said, hoping to get a rise out of the other her.

The other Claudia just laughed. “I guess that works too.” She turned to face Claudia and smirked. The playful mirth in the action combined with the dark pits for eyes caused a shiver to run up Claudia’s back. “Let me in.”

Claudia’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, causing the other Claudia to roll her eyes before continuing to speak. “You. Are weak. I. Am not. If you want to get what you want, what you  _ truly _ want,” The other Claudia leaned back down to get eye level to Claudia. “You’ll have to let me... _ take over _ .”

Claudia clenched her fists. “No.”

The other Claudia’s smirk fell into a frown, a dark purple fog crawling out from behind her, swallowing her up and spreading around Claudia. Claudia watched it move around the darkness, lighting it up as it went. She moved to her feet, turning back to the other Claudia, only to find her gone. In her place was her father, his skin pale, eyes pitch black, and dark veins covering him. 

“Dad!” Claudia ran to him, reaching out her hands to embrace him. When she wrapped her arms around him, however, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. 

“Claudia, help me!” His voice echoed from behind her. She turned around to see him on the ground, face full of pain. “Help me!” 

The other Claudia stepped out from behind a pillar of fog. “You heard him. He needs help, Claudia.”

Claudia held onto her father’s hands, tears in her eyes. “Just tell me what’s wrong. I can fix it. I just need you to tell me what’s wrong.”

The other Claudia shook her head as she walked around Viren and Claudia. “Tsk. What a pity. If only there was some way to save him.”

Claudia glared at the other her. “Do something! Heal him!” 

She was met with a laugh that bounced around her. Her father reach a hand out to her. “Claudia...I...I think…” He coughed loudly as Claudia tried to quiet him. He kept trying to speak to her, but nothing was making sense to her. She kept trying to quiet him, to heal him, to do  _ something _ , but nothing worked. Soon, Claudia felt him go limp in her hands, the black veins fading into nothing as he spilled into purple smoke out of her hands. She couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

“See, Claudia.” The voice floated around her, attached to nothing. “You can’t save your father. What else can’t you do?”

“Why didn’t you do something? If you’re so strong, you could have saved him!”

The other Claudia formed right in front of her, causing Claudia to jump. The other Claudia smirked at that. “I’m trying to show you what will happen if you keep me in here.” With that, she blew away into purple smoke again.

“Clauds?” Claudia stood stock still at that voice. She stiffly turned around to see Soren, covered in blood, standing before her with a broken sword. “Why would you do this?”

Claudia watched him, mouth agape. “Soren...I...Dad…”

Soren lifted his broken sword, ready to strike. “What about Dad? What did you do to him?” He was practically shouting.

“I didn’t do anything! Soren, please!”

He scoffed. “You expect me to believe that? Look around you! Look what you did to Katolis!”

At that, the purple smoke around her began to form one of the villages surrounding the castle, making it seem like she and her brother stood in the middle of their main square. It would have been comforting if the scene around her wasn’t so  _ chaotic. _ Houses were destroyed, many even up in flames. In the distance, she could see the castle falling to pieces. She turned back to her brother frantically.

“Soren, please.” She raised her hands up to him, eyes pleading with him to put the sword down and help her. “I  _ didn’t _ do this. How could I have? I  _ love _ Katolis. Why would I destroy it?”

Soren furrowed his brows, eyes narrowing on his sister. “Why would you?” Soren scoffed again. “Just look at you, Claudia! You’re a monster! This must have been easy for you.”

A mirror appeared in front of her, blocking her view of Soren. Her eyes were black like that of the other Claudia, dark veins covered her like it did her father, except there were more of them on her, making her skin look as dark as the night without the moon. Her hair whipped around her of their own accord, mirroring the giant violet tentacles protruding from her back. 

As she was looking at her reflection, shocked, the mirror shattered into millions of pieces, Soren’s broken sword coming straight for her. Claudia screamed out, covering her face with both her hands. She waited for the impact, for the pain, but there was nothing. She peeked over her arms to see the purple smoke enveloping her. Claudia let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding and brought her arms back to her sides. 

“You can’t even control your powers.” The other Claudia’s voice rang out around her once more. “So sad Katolis has to pay for  _ your _ weaknesses.”

The purple fog moved once again. Claudia watched it numbly, tears still running down her face. There was nothing in her, nothing, that wanted to argue with her other self. She had lost all her fight and sank to her knees. 

“Please.” Claudia’s voice came out small, broken. “Just...stop. Please.” 

The other Claudia stepped out of the darkness in front of her. “I told you, Claudia. You’re weak. All  _ you _ can do is watch as those around you  _ suffer _ .” She stepped behind another pillar of smoke and disappeared once more, a throne appearing in her stead with the crown of the king of Katolis sitting on it. Claudia walked towards the throne, her hands running up and down the metalwork of the crown. Footsteps from behind her alerted her to another person approaching. When she turned, she could barely contain the cry of pure joy. She ran to her father and hugged him tightly, catching him off guard. He soon wrapped his arms around her, one hand stroking her head as she cried.

“Claudia, what is the meaning of this?” Viren looked down at her. “Shouldn’t you be outside teaching your students? And why are you crying? What did Soren do this time?”

She shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. She had been crying for too long. “No, no. Soren didn’t do anything. It’s just...” She stopped, brows furrowed in confusion. “ _ Students?” _

Viren laughed a true, full body laugh. “Oh, Claudia! How you do jest.” He wiped a tear of laughter from his eye. Claudia felt something twitch in the back of her mind, but she ignored it. All she cared about was that her father was here,  _ alive _ . “Have you really forgotten about your dark magic students, Madam High Mage?”

Claudia stared at her father.  _ High Mage? Me? _ She couldn’t believe it. But, if she was High Mage then what about her father. She was about to question him when she saw him lift the crown to his head and sit on the throne. Claudia was too shocked to say anything.

“You should get going, Claudia. I have many matters to discuss today, and I doubt your students will wait forever. Soren will be ending his class before you even begin yours.” 

Claudia perked at the sound of her brother’s name. “Soren’s outside?” Viren nodded. “And he’s not... _ mad _ ...at me?”

Viren looked at her as if she were a puzzle he couldn’t figure out. “Why in the world would he be mad at you? You just told me he wasn’t the reason you were crying. You two have been teaching classes together since I took the throne, Claudia. Honestly, are you feeling alright?”

Claudia just nodded and looked away from her father, the purple smoke creating the rest of the castle as she turned.

“What about Xadia?” It came out as a whisper, but she knew her father had heard her.

Viren quirked his head, his mouth forming into a small frown. “Xadia? Claudia, don’t you remember?” When his daughter stared at him blankly, he sighed. “We destroyed Xadia two years ago.”

“This is what  _ I _ can give you, Katolis, and the rest of the humans.” The other Claudia walked out from behind the throne, watching Viren talk with some purple smoke advisors. She turned to Claudia, tilting her head slightly to the side. “Isn’t that what you want, Claudia? A world without the Xadians? Where dark magic is accepted? Where you have control over your powers and are High Mage? Where  _ Soren doesn’t kill you _ ?”

Claudia watched as the illusion of the castle and her father as king disappeared back into the purple smoke.

“So,” the other Claudia said. “What do you want to do?”

*****

“Claudia, Claudia! Wake up!” Soren shook her shoulder. He stopped when he started to see her stir, sighing with relief. “Oh thank god! Are you ok? What happened? You were out for such a long time.”

Claudia rubbed her face and mumbled out, “I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

Soren just nodded and sat back. He looked up at the sky. “If we want to get back home to Dad, we should start moving. We have a long walk ahead of us.” He looked back down to his sister and pushed some hair out of her face. “Why don’t you go freshen up? There’s a stream just behind the treeline.” He got up and started to walk back to the horses.

Claudia grabbed her pack and walked to the stream Soren had pointed her towards. She splashed some cold water onto her face before looking down at her reflection. Watching her eyes turn from a full black to her normal green, she smirked.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to AO3 users Midnight_Queen and TheBirbiest for beta reading for me! 
> 
> If you liked this, please give my tumblrs @claudia-talks and @k-the-kryptid a follow!


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